Pellucidar

. There Perry told me all that had befallen

hind, and that I did not purpose ever returning to Pellucidar. He told them t

ich I was returning; that I had never intended taking Dian th

eared from the camp, nor had Perr

ed since I had departed, but guessed that many

e, and the Amozites under Dacor the Strong One, Dian’s brother, had fallen out over my supposed

ew weapons that Perry and I had taught them to make and to use. Other tribes of the new f

l demolition of the wor

upon one tribe after another in rapid succession, wreaking awful havoc among them and reducing

intain their defiance of the Mahars; but these tribes were still divided among themselves, nor had it seemed

k into the oblivion of the Stone Age our wondrous drea

ndeed still “Emperor of Pellucidar,” and some day I meant to r

my empress. To me she w

s to the whereabout

of her that I came to the pretty pass in which you

t the bottom of the matter, and I determined to go to Amoz, where I guessed that Dian might come to the protection of her brother, and do my

ney, only to find that Dian was not among her brother

the disappearance of his sister that he could not listen to reason, but kept repeating tim

e instigation of Hooja. He so turned the Amozites against me t

e Sagoths discovered me. For a long time I eluded them, hid

ts and the edible roots t

I could elude them no longer and the end came as I had long foreseen that it w

ngth to travel again. We planned much, rebuilding all our shat

might be in this savage world, and under what frightf

himself out fully like a civilized human being — under-clothing, so

from the shaggy hide of a thag. Now he wore real clothing again for the first time since the ape-fo

lder, two six-shooters at his hips, and a rifl

tered the prospector with me ten or eleven years before, for the trial trip that had plung

muscles, almost atrophied from disus

n he really was, as he had when we left the outer world, he now appeared about

rry’s former physical condition could not long have survived t

al observatory” at Greenwich. By use of the pedometers we h

ed to follow a different route on the chance tha

ize were of almost daily occurrence; but with our deadly express rifles we ran comparatively little risk when one recalls that pr

rections quite accurately. We must have covered a great many thousand square miles of territory, and yet we had seen nothing in the way of a

e moment that my eyes rested upon them my heart leaped. I seized

ains of th

he country of our worst enemies,

ing-point from which to prosecute our search inte

the right trail and not wande

od friend, Ja the Mezop. You did not know him, but you know al

ct us upon the right

. “They must cover an enormous territory. How are you to find your fri

Ja gave me minute directions. I

t peak of the Mountains of the Clouds. There you

t — so far that they are barely discernible. The one to the extreme left as you fa

was to be our guide for several weary marches. At last we c

its giant head thousands of feet above the others. It was he wh

further progress. “We cannot endure the arctic cold of those high flung passes, and to traverse the endless miles about

t cross them

shru

tropics. We should freeze to death among the snows and glaci

,” I reiterated. “W

at plan we carried o

where there was good water. Then we set out in search

f the lesser, lower hills; but he makes up for it in the awfulness of his ferocity a

ail worn smooth by the padded feet of countless ages of wild beasts. At a shoul

oming down for breakfast. Each realized

roar the bea

rose straight upward

opped into a dim

of me was

me wa

and fired into the broad breast of the creature. There w

om the howl of rage and pain that broke from

. Down I went beneath his ton of madde

eling sorry for poor old Perry, left all

that I was quite unharmed. I leaped to my feet, my rifle st

eaped in the direction I supposed him to be, to find Perry perched upon a projecting rock sev

and his mouth ajar, the picture o

cried when he saw

come this w

ld man. “But I heard his roars — he mu

where in the world do you

to the point at which the bear had hurled me down and

rown blotch near the bottom o

ing me to the path, had toppled over into the abyss. I shivered at th

to remove the great pelt. But at last the thing was accomplishe

ing it. When this was done to our satisfaction we made heavy bo

that fell about our shoulders and breasts. We were now fairly well equipped f

etual snows which cap this lofty range. Here we built a snug, secure little

sallied forth in search

e now kept in duplicate. By this means we were saved ted

e, and when we had at last discovered what seemed might prove a

. Not a step did we take in advance but the

timber-wolves. Farther up we were assailed by enormous white bears — hungry, devilish fellows, who came roaring acro

ter. Myriad are the huge-bellied carnivora of this primitive world. Never, from birth to death, are tho

in his primal state an easy prey, slow of foot, puny of stre

t extinction. Poor Perry never was a raging lion at heart, and I am convinced th

asible way across the range, we never knew at what second some great engine of clawed and fanged destruction migh

gazed. And when in the comparative safety of our hut we lay down to sleep the great beasts roared and fought without the walls, clawe

was a

ition each time we returned to the hut. It

be before the last was expended and we must either remain in the hut until we

ammunition could not last forever. In discussing the problem, finally we came to the dec

sleep could no longer be denied we might still be high in the frozen regions of perpetual snow and ice, where sleep wo

ities as we felt we could least afford to do without. The bears seemed unusually troublesome and determined that time, and as w

bears dogging our footst

en cloud-wrapped for long periods. We coul

h we could hear grunting behind us. To meet them in thi

lessness of our situation. He flopped

e my return to Pellucidar, and I had thought that he had gi

o suggest that we had better be pushing along one of the bears in our

p, and sent him racing ahead through the blinding fog at a ga

n in a clear atmosphere, and then there were hideous precipices along the edges of

e did not answer me. And then I hurried on in the dir

to call to him, I heard nothing more, not even the grunting of the bears that had been behind

one — gone forever, I ha

his body be preserved in its icy sepulcher for countless ages, until on some far distant day the slow-moving river of ice had wound its snail-like way dow